Butterfly Fish

By

After the sudden death of her mother, London photographer Joy struggles to pull the threads of her life back together, with the support of her kind but mysterious neighbour Mrs Harris. Joy’s fortune begins to change when she receives an unexpected inheritance from her mother: a huge sum of money, her grandfather’s diary and a unique brass warrior’s head from the nineteenth century kingdom of Benin.

Joy’s search for the origins of the head take us on a journey through time as dark family secrets come to light. Joy unearths the ties between her mother, grandfather, the wife of the king, and the brass head’s pivotal connection to them all.

A spiritual successor to the tales of Marquez, Butterfly Fish masterfully combines elements of traditional Nigerian storytelling and magical realism in a multigenerational take on the legacy of inheritance.

Haunting and compelling, Butterfly Fish is a richly told story of love and hope, of family secrets, power, political upheaval, loss and coming undone.

Meet the author

Irenosen Okojie is a writer, curator and Arts Project Manager. She has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Southbank Centre, and the Caine Prize. Her writing has been featured in the Guardian and the Observer. Her short stories have been pub …

Reviews

“Butterfly Fish is a novel of epic proportions… From sentence to sentence, Okojie conjures up acutely observed, beautifully-worded metaphors that resonate and delight… I fully expect to see Butterfly Fish on many an award nomination list. It is a fascinating read, and one I highly recommend.”Yvvette Edwards, author of A Cupboard Full of Coats, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize

“A stunningly well written book, juggling different timescales with great skill. Benin itself is vividly imagined in a historical narrative that runs in parallel with the contemporary London one. It is a wonderful novel.” Simon Brett

“A bittersweet story uniting different traditions of narrative to create a whole new geography of the imagination.” Michele Roberts